Istanbul Airport

✅ Trip Verified | It's big but that's as far as it went with the positives, in fact the size was a negative point. The runway is so far from the main terminal that it took almost 15mins to get to the terminal! Why would you design it that way? If you're transiting through this airport you have to walk incredibly far to get to security .. so if you're running on a tight schedule this is not the airport to be transiting through. Why didn't they design the transiting process like Hong Kong with a security point every few hundred meters? The shops lack diversity with so many duty free shops selling the same stuff. Would have expected a lot more variety with food options but even this was limited. The gates are numbered extremely strangely. Rather than having gates numbered A1, A2 A3 etc they've used A1A, A1B, etc so signs would say gates A, B, C in this direction when in fact they mean gate A1A, A1B ... very confusing! I visited the IGN lounge which is situated on the 2nd floor and this view point you can see how unclean this airport is. You really notice all the dust and how poorly the place is put together. Only one hour free WiFi provided. Really disappointed with this. What a shame this airport totally missed the mark in what could have been a great hub between Europe and Asia.

✅ Trip Verified | I did the trifecta at Istanbul Airport: transit, arrival, and departure for my second travel experience this year at Istanbul Airport. Compared to my visit in April more shops and eating areas have opened, there was less apparent construction activity on the inside of the airport, and most of the dust seems to have settled. Queuing times for immigration, check in, and security were acceptable. Your luggage is already waiting for you at the carousel when you arrive. The bathrooms were clean and spotless and there are plenty of places to sit. Taxing to the gate varies but nothing longer than 15-20 minutes. I understand that WiFi is an issue but I had purchased a 30 day data plan from my mobile carrier so I had no need to use WiFi. The airport app is a must as it has a map, shows you where your gate will be before it appears on the information screens, and gives you notifications about your flight as well. Istanbul Airport is also a 45 minute drive from Sultanahmet so not as bad as I was expecting. If you get the airport app, do a bit of research, and make sure that your transit is more than an hour you will have no problem navigating around Istanbul Airport.

✅ Trip Verified | I have now flown through Istanbul Airport five times and each time I told myself - I will give it another chance. But no, each time my experience of this airport gets worse. It is not about the airport itself but the worst ground staff, the most disrespectful, rude, unhelpful people I have ever seen in a service position. Staff at this airport will go out of their way to make your journey / experience as unpleasant as they can. If you ask a question twice, they will roll their eyes. They will treat you very badly. Not to mention lazy. Forget going above and beyond, the ground staff made my transfer as horrible as possible. Unfortunately, I still have one return flight I have to make, which I will. I just landed and my experience was so bad that I had to look up whether it was the same for others. And yes, it was. Avoid this airport at all costs. I will never ever fly through Istanbul again. Even if I have to pay for money for another ticket and fly longer. The staff are just hateful. Don't fly through here. Oh and the wifi doesn't work. The joke is that Turkey built this massive airport to make a hub out of this airport for the world. Perhaps you should have spent that money on teaching your workers to be decent people first.

✅ Trip Verified | Extremely user unfriendly airport. You walk more than 20 minutes to arrive to your gate and the staff do not speak English very well and are unwilling to help you. Moreover from the time you enter to the plane until the final take off the pilot can drive more tahn 20 minutes (taxi time). The worst thing is that they provide only 1 hour of poor wifi service whereas at other famous airport hubs like Singapore you have unlimited speed wifi. In general is one of the most unfriendly and tiring airports I've ever visited.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew from Istanbul Airport to Milano. Using this airport since opening. The airport and facilities are rapidly improving, the airport management is really learning by experiencing it. They need urgently new lounges. This time I was unlucky and had a gate that was far away, had to walk for 15min, but at some other airport you will find the same, understandable. The only big minus is the rude security staff at entering terminal that can not even put 3 basic English words together and be nice and have a smile. The ladies security especially are far worse. Can not even say hello, please, welcome, wait please or any basic word that they need at their level of work. They need to learn in total 5 basic sentences to welcome people and help them, but no none of them learn. Besides the security check point, the overall experience is pleasant. Wifi works perfectly, but 1 hour is too less. Tax free shopping is amazing. Toilets are extremely bad and dirty. I am surprised by the napping zones, looks really nice and comfortable. But you need more seats.

✅ Trip Verified | I traveled to Istanbul New airport two times from Toronto (YYZ) two times since opened in April 2019. With all my confident I can say this is not an airport, it looks like a shopping mall From one gate to another one, you should consider walking about 20 to 30 minutes. I am not sure what was the purpose of having this huge airport without considering the amount of time and energy one passenger should spend only to finds his/ her gate. What a waste of money. The surprising part of this airport is the sides that still under construction and trucks still working. One question remains to be answered for me. I do not know why when I was about to come to Canada, the security guard did take pictures of my Canadian passport without asking for my consent. Staffs in this airport need more training to know how to talk and treat people.

✅ Trip Verified | I transited but also crossed the border here. The airport is new and parts are still under construction. It is spacious and has plenty of and varied shops. At times, signs can be a bit confusing, namely when needing to change areas. What I find ridiculous about it is the internet access: you need an sms or a password from a kiosk and then you get an hour free. I tweeted the airport about this and they advise the access control is a legal constraint and they would look into the one hour thing.

Not Verified | Nightmare of an airport. Too hot with no consideration for passengers at all. Miles of walking from one gate to another in that heat. The worst airport I’ve ever been too. It’s so easy to miss connections because gate could be an hours hike in intense heat. They need to look at airports around the world that make it easy for passengers. Horrific experience.

✅ Trip Verified | If you read signs this is so easy. You dont need to ask staff because everything was written on signs. It was not complicated. I was afraid because airport is not a small airport and I could miss my flight. But It was not like that. It takes 20-30 minutes from outside to gate. In Sabiha Gökçen airport this is 1 hour. Generally it was great.

✅ Trip Verified | New airport recently opened, probably still in the running-in phase: not all services planned for the airport are functional. Long walks to take to reach the gates, transit areas or baggage claim; but the directions for passengers sufficiently clear and intelligible. Speed ​​in delivering baggage and passing terminal access controls. Numerous and well-organized check-in or baggage drop counters Large and spacious arrivals and departures halls. Excellent cleanliness and brightness of the rooms. Excessive shortage of seats in waiting areas despite the large spaces available. Extremely expensive food and drink services compared to Turkish standards. Not always of quality. Free WiFi difficult to activate and some websites are not allowed (including Wikipedia) Friendly and helpful staff, but not always with sufficient English knowledge. No fast connections to the city center, which is far away. Complex shuttle bus network for the main areas of the city. If you are traveling at the times of the greatest trader, the journey of about 40km can last up to 2 hours (leave the city center in advance, if you don't want to miss your flight). Domestic flights use the same term as international flights. Quick baggage delivery.